In network installations, it is typically preferred for a networked computer (e.g., a personal computer (PC) within a computer network system) to not see any traffic from other networked computers. One solution to addressing this consideration is to set-up slash-30 (i.e., /30) routing. The ‘slash’ notation is known as the Classless Inter Domain Routing (CIDR) network address format. CIDR is a way to allocate and specify a network address (e.g., an Internet address) used in inter-domain router more flexibly than with the original system of Internet Protocol address classes.
Known approaches for setting up slash-30 routing exhibit a number of shortcomings. One such shortcoming is that it require manual configuration of each port. Such manual configuration is typically very time-consuming for reasons such as, for example, having to make sure all networked devices have a correct IP address. Another such shortcoming is that it requires intervention whenever a networked computer is moved from one port to another or when a new computer is added to the network. Still another shortcoming is that it requires giving fixed IP addresses to a computer attached to a port of a network (i.e., a networked computer).
Port mapping of each port is another known approach for addressing the consideration of not wanting a networked computer to see any traffic from other networked computers within a computer network. With respect to addressing such consideration, port mapping is a method of taking all of the traffic back to a central router that blocks traffic between ports having networked computers attached thereto. This puts the load on a backend router requiring all traffic to transverse the network. Undesirably, peer-to-peer communications is putting more pressure on the front-end switch to relieve the backend router of traffic, which is exactly opposite what port mapping does. Port mapping also has scaling problems to contend with. For example, as the network switch performing port mapping gets layered (i.e. multiple layer 2 hops), flooded traffic on the reverse path may still occur.
Therefore, an approach for substantially limiting, if not precluding, a networked computer from seeing any traffic from other networked computers within a computer network and which does so without introducing shortcomings associated with known approaches would be advantageous, desirable and useful.